With the ever-growing Internet marketplace, it is important that your website can be found by consumers. How you ask? The answer can be answered simply with 3 letters SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Now you may be asking yourself what is so special about SEO and why your website would need this type of service. Allow Vizergy to help you answer those two questions.
Search Engine Optimization by definition is the practice of modifying a website by manipulating onsite and offsite elements in order to improve the traffic a site receives from a search engine. To apply this to your website, ask yourself the question "Where does my site show up when I perform a search for my markets top keyword phrases?" Do you show up on the first page of the top 3 search engines (Google, Yahoo and MSN)? Do you show up anywhere in the first 3 pages? These top 3 pages are essential for any website owner to show up in as it is only a very small percentage of Internet users that go past page 3.
Unfortunately, it is not as simple as selecting certain keywords and your website will rank for them, due to the many additional factors that have to occur before you show up for the more competitive keywords on your site. One thing to keep in mind is whether you have ever had a company perform this type of service before. The SEO techniques used may be outdated or they may have used undesirable techniques that could now have a negative impact on your website. Some of those techniques include: hidden text, keyword overuse in any element of your site (one version of "spamming"), or doorway pages. If any bad techniques were used they must be removed, then the search engines have to come back to your site to verify that the changes have been made so they can determine if they should include your site back within their result listings. Once your site is "cleaned up," your websites content needs to be updated to support the appropriate keyword phrases. Relevancy to your market is one of the biggest determining factors to whether a search engine will position your site as a result of your selected, targeted keywords. Once the hard part is out of the way, a successful link building campaign needs to be started for your site. Minimally, this should focus on the most competitive phrases on your website. Consider links to your site like this, every time another site adds a good keyword rich link back to your site, it's like receiving a vote for relevancy to that term, although this is a simple explanation to the importance but helps describe what it can do for your site.
As to the other important question, "Why does my site need SEO," the simplest answer is that your competitors are using SEO to help improve their online market share and the traffic they receive from search engines. Your website can also be your top sales channel, as it can reach a broader marketplace than a traditional brick and mortar business. If your website is optimized properly, individuals all over the world can find your website if they need your service. Why wouldn't you want to take advantage of SEO, as the majority of web traffic is driven by search? If your site cannot be found, then you are missing out on the incredible opportunities that would be available to you through search.
Lastly here is a checklist to determine if your current site is not search engine friendly.
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Wednesday, April 2, 2008
What is SEO?
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Do You Know the Value of Your Keywords?
In the world of Internet Marketing we have a distinct advantage over other mediums. Our analytics programs allow us to measure the value, success or lack of success of our work directly from our consumers almost instantly. Other advertising efforts are not as fortunate. Traditional advertising takes previous consumer data, analyzes trends and sets up focus groups in order to find that "sweet spot." Online marketers know it is important to convey the value of our work to our clients and educate them about why we make the design, copywriting and keyword choices we do. Search engine marketing professionals use numerous tools when determining how to proceed with the focus of a site.
Let's assume client a wants a full site, start to finish, to compete in a competitive online market. Your fantastic design team has whipped up a beautiful, user-friendly, spider-friendly site with all sorts of "sticky" features to drive the consumer to that final sale. But it's up to your SEO/PPC team to make sure the consumer can find your site in the first place. "No problem" you think, "I'll use one of the many keyword tools available in the industry to pick the most valued terms out there, and based on relevancy to my client's market we'll get them to 1st page in no time."
That's a good start, but how will you keep them on that first page? With those fantastic analytics tools we mentioned earlier. Don't be fooled into thinking you can maintain number one rankings in a competitive market using just a "Wordtracker" score alone. A truly effective long-term Internet marketing campaign in a competitive market must be monitored on a recurring basis to understand the traffic coming to that site. What word brought them here? What page did they come in on? Did they make it to a conversion point? These are questions that you should be answering for your clients. These are also the things that will justify your keyword efforts, or show where your targeted campaign may be needing help. Measure those seasonal trends if they apply to your industry. Make sure your pay per click campaign isn't wasting effort on useless terms.
Just because Wordtracker doesn't think your term has value, a program like WebTrends or even Google Analytics can show what searched phrases are driving traffic to your site (or on to conversions if your analytics tools offer that level of reporting). This is more valuable to your client than any "score" that some tool can provide. With plenty of due diligence you can sift through all that boring traffic and trend data to make sure you’re covering all the bases for your site. You may even come across that long tail diamond in the rough that will turn all those visitors into the conversions your client is paying you for.
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Wednesday, December 5, 2007
SEO. Science or Art?
As you get to know more about myself through this blog, you will see that I like to debate. Not argue, but discuss a topic with someone of a different opinion, exploring their reasons behind their thoughts. One of my favorite debates is the idea of SEO being more art than science. I'm of the art opinion, but one of my superiors is of the science crowd. I asked him (Scott Ross) to write his thoughts so that we may learn a bit more about his reasoning. So, without further ado, I introduce to you Scott Ross. With his fancy Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Science, he is currently the Director of Search Marketing for Vizergy (Hmmm...fancy title too)
SEO. Science or Art?
by Scott P. Ross
Some say that the world of SEO/SEM is a Science while others say it is an Art. During the debate of Science vs. Art there have been many arguments for one or the other. I have been asked about my stance on the subject, and after 5 years of working in the industry, I lean towards the Science side of the conversation. I look at it this way, Google employs thousands of individuals to help run its company. And looking into their job postings from time to time (only from a research stand point, of course), I find them looking to employ individuals with Neural Network and Expert Systems experience. These two fields in the computing industry require a level of intelligence far above that of a typical employee, and I can’t help but wonder: why would they hire an individual if they don’t plan on taking advantage of that talent and expertise? Of course, any good business wouldn’t. This is where my journey into the Science behind SEO will begin.
The world of search as we currently know it is powered by Algorithms. Those algorithms are no more than a mathematical equation- albeit a highly sophisticated one- they may even be an expert system. An algorithm has variables that need to be met for certain conditions to match. The more matches that occur, the more precise the solution that is presented to the algorithm. So for SEO/SEM purposes, the more matches the higher our pages rank in the SERPs. With the variable matching left up to an SEO expert, this is where experimentation comes in to play. Google, Yahoo, and MSN are not going to give us the search algorithm they use for their engines, so we must manipulate HTML on a site and deploy link building techniques to improve a site’s positioning in the SERPs.
Experimenting is a scientific process that includes many steps. Even though I may not be a traditional Scientist, I still can use the Scientific Method of experimentation to help improve a site’s keyword ranking. First a hypothesis is formed. If I modify my title tag in a certain way it will produce a certain outcome, however if I modify my content in another way it will produce a different outcome, etc. (I know those are poor examples but a hypothesis does not need to be fancy). Second, we must make a modification to our site to back our hypothesis. We then record any reaction that may occur (observing how our rankings changed). Finally, we come up with a conclusion that either the changes we made had a positive or negative effect on our rankings. We then get to repeat this process for every phrase we want to improve in the SERPs. Anyone who tells me that making these types of changes on a site and then waiting around to see how the rankings were affected would only be kidding themselves if they argue this is not experimenting.
Now with that said, here is where I start to ride the fence. There are many of us out there that have a strong background in HTML or any one of a number of computer languages but struggle when it comes to creativity. As a Search Engine Marketer we will need to make visible content changes to help support a phrase. Without a certain level of creative juices flowing, any changes we make to page content may become written in a way that sounds robotic. There have been numerous articles written about writing your content for your visitor and not for a search engine. Well to do this correctly, a specific skill set must be used to write effective website content for both entities. Because if we don't show up well in the SERPs then a site will not receive as many visitors and no matter how eloquent our site copy may be, no one has the opportunity to read it.
To finalize my thoughts, SEO/SEM must combine both Science and Art to truly be effective in the world of Search Engine Marketing. Because without experimentation we will never find new techniques to use to combat understand the minds at Google, MSN and Yahoo and without creativity our site content will be written strictly to help out with search and not getting the consumer to the site.
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Thursday, November 29, 2007
Google PageRank - Does It Matter?
In the SEO community, there are numerous debates on many aspects of process and methodology. One of the most heated of which is the validity of Google's PageRank system. Does it even matter? IS it even worth having the Toolbar on your browser? First, we should take a small look at what the PageRank system is, and then we can look at whether or not it's worth our worry or not.
The Google PageRank is a link analysis algorithm, giving a measure of importance on a scale of 0 - 10 (10 being best, of course). Scores are determined by the amount and quality of links pointing to a website. This is a very simple explanation of the PageRank system. There are a great number of other factors that can be considered when discussing the PageRank (PR) of a site. So, how does this relate to our websites?
The tricky thing to remember about PR is that it does NOT determine your rankings. You can see this for yourself by conducting a few searches on Google and looking through the top ten results of each search. You will often see pages outrank other pages with higher PR. However, the same thing that makes a big impact on your PR, also impacts your rankings (I told you it was tricky)--that is, both the quantity and more importantly, the quality of the links pointing to your site. This fact alone constitutes the need for attention by most website owners. But I believe there should be just a bit more consideration.
As stated, the PR number itself does not determine your rankings. But it does serve a different purpose. You see, there are a number of services that offer website owners the ability to sell text links on their site for a commission of the sale price. Now, the price offered to a site is largely determined by your site's PR. This, yet again, is another tricky topic. You see, selling links on your site can, and usually will result in a penalty in your site's rankings in Google (See their guidelines, and a little history on the recent onslaught from Google).
For this reason, we strongly suggest that our own sites do not sell links. If you sell links, you probably want to explore traffic sources outside of Google (or at the least outsmart them in the delivery). If you don't sell links, the PR has little to no impact on your site, and there is no reason to give it much of your attention.
So, the answer. Does it matter? Yes and no. I know, it's a horrible answer, but that's SEO for ya. Every aspect has more than one answer or method, and 90% of the time both answers and methods are at the same time correct and incorrect. In short, for our clients (the hotel and hospitality industry) PR doesn't "matter." For some blogs and other sites out there, it can mean the difference between a good and bad advertising check.
The PR bar can still be fun to look at though. So, if you're still interested in it, I'll try to get a detailed post on the Google Toolbar itself, along with some screen shots.
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Thursday, November 8, 2007
Natural and Paid Search for a Winning Team
Many SEO technicians take pride in the work they do to get their customers websites to the top of the search engines. It’s been mentioned that PPC (pay per click) ads are the easy part, there is no challenge to PPC, just pick a word and go, and that it’s only as useful as your budget allows it to be. While some of that may be true, I can tell you that our PPC team works just as hard as our SEO team, and when done right, both online marketing techniques require diligent research, reoccurring analysis of consumer trends, search engine changes, and traffic stats for your site.
Studies show that ideally websites looking to maximize their visibility should have both organic and PPC working together in a strategic fashion to complement each other.
Bottom line with SEO, is that while organic results are considered most relevant by search engine users, they take time to achieve, and can fluctuate due to various outside factors (search engine algorithm change, other websites using “black-hat” techniques, etc). This is where using a PPC campaign that is monitored regularly will help. Not only can PPC give you instant results, but the data gathered by those click through rates can give you some insight as to whether the keyword theme of your site is considered relevant by actual users. While we may use several tools to predict keyword values, nothing beats real clicks to your site monitored on a regular basis. Utilizing a flexible spending plan with your PPC can help target slow periods when seasonal factors may have less people searching for specific terms, helping you grab a broader search audience. Or alternately, save PPC funds by not overlapping heavy seasons when natural search provides plenty of web traffic on its own. Overall any placement on screen is beneficial to your site, at the most it’s a click through by a potential customer, and at the least it will help train customers to associate the terms you’re targeting to your site by repeatedly showing your web address with those keyword terms. When done right an Organic/PPC combo will help your website achieve maximum visibility in both the short and long term.
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